Mediazona: over 60 tonnes of packages sent by people in Russian military uniform from cities bordering Ukraine since war began

Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, people in military uniform have sent over 60 tonnes of packages from towns and cities bordering Ukraine, an investigation by Mediazona news outlet reveals.

Mediazona reporters have analysed over 18.5 mln packages sent from 46 offices of CDEK delivery service in 13 cities located along the Russian-Ukrainian and Belarusian-Ukrainian border, noticing a sharp rise in packages sent from these locations since the start of the war. A destination can be deemed “suspicious” depending on the weight of the package delivered to this location, the news outlet points out.

As Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv region in early April, journalists recorded a rise in the weight of suspicious packages sent from border towns, which peaked on 4 April, reaching nearly four tonnes.

According to Mediazona, over 15 tonnes of suspicious packages were sent from Valuyki (a Russian town 18 miles away from the Ukrainian border) from 21 February until 20 May. Over 13 tonnes were sent over the same period from Klintsy (37 miles from the Ukrainian border), and about 7 tonnes of suspicious packages were sent from Novozybkovo.

One of the packages sent on 29 April seemed to contain a drone similar to Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicle, used by the Russian Armed Forces.

Its price may reach up to $120,000. Mediazona was unable to track the arrival of the drone to the destination office. CDEK did not respond to the journalists’ request for comment at the moment of the article’s publication.

In the period from 21 February until 20 May, 10.3 tonnes of packages were sent to Moscow, and 6 tonnes were delivered to Yekaterinburg. The town of Yurga in Russia’s Kemerovo region has been deemed the most “suspicious,” with 5.8 tonnes of cargo sent over this period to the city with the population of just 80,000.

Mediazona points out that Yurga houses three major military units: the 106th Separate Material and Technical Support Brigade, the 74th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, and the 120th Artillery Brigade.